Just before Rishi Sunak became the prime minister, the government approval rating sank to a record low not seen since records began in the 1940s.
There’s no doubt the new PM faced a bulging in-tray when he arrived in No.10 this week, but he is also facing an uphill battle when it comes to winning back public opinion.
And, having only secured his seat in No.10 through MP nominations, not a vote through Tory members or the general public, he is facing down calls for a snap general election too.
In a YouGov poll conducted between October 22 and 24, the weekend after Liz Truss’s sudden resignation, only 6% of respondents approved on the government.
This was a drop of one percentage point compared to the previous week.
The same poll found around 82% of answers disapproved of the government, an increase of 5% compared to the week before.
That’s a pretty bleak outlook for any government, never mind one facing its third prime minister in seven weeks.
However, another YouGov poll, conducted for The Times on Thursday found Sunak has actually given the Conservatives a small bounce in the polls.
Support for the Conservatives has gone up to 23% (an increase of 4%) while Labour fell five points to 51%.
But this still means the opposition hold onto their lead with a healthy 28-point margin.
This may mean the public are yet to move on from the mistakes of Sunak’s predecessor, Truss, or there could be a wariness about the new PM.
Around 30% of respondents also said they believed Sunak would be the best prime minister, but 34% said leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer – and the remaining third said they were undecided.
But, again, it’s still an improvement from Truss’s days in No.10 where only 13% chose her as the best PM following the economic chaos she brought on the country through her mini-budget and repeated U-turns.
Conducted with 1,646 adults on Tuesday and Wednesday, YouGov’s poll also found 43% of respondents said they trusted Sunak on the economy, compared to 46% who did not.
Around two-thirds said they didn’t trust him to make the right calls with the NHS.